Dex expresses guilt over screwing up her life, but she won't hear of it. "It's not yours to screw up," she tells him. "I don't want you to feel guilty about this. I don't want you to feel guilty about anything. You deserve to be happy so go f—king be happy."

The good doctor comes in and says that she's optimistic about Deb's recovery, announcing that the bullet bounced around but didn't hit anything important.

Deb wants Dex to go chase his happiness. "The next word I wanna hear you say is goodbye. Say it already or I'll crawl out of this f—king bed and kick your ass."

"Goodbye," he says.

"I'll see you soon," says she.

Leaving her room, Dex reveals to Harrison that that hospital is the very same one in which Harrison was born.

Cue flashback. Deb, with much-shorter hair, congratulates Dex on the arrival of his newborn son, Harrison. It's sad to see how bright and shiny Deb is, knowing how damaged she's become in the intervening years.

Back to present day, Elway arrives at the scene and threatens Dex. "Storm's coming, buddy," he seethes. "And it's gonna be real hard to find a way out."

Meanwhile, Saxon barges into a vet's office and demands that the guy stitch him up.

Hannah suggests taking an evacuation bus up to Jacksonville, and Dex agrees.

The vet finishes stitching Saxon's arm and begs for his life. Saxon demands that he drive him somewhere.

Dex catches up with him, though, and the two of them square off. Dex stalks toward him, and Saxon raises his gun, but Batista comes out of nowhere and puts his gun to Saxon's temple before Saxon can fire a shot. The cops arrest Saxon. (But don't think that that's the end for this big bad.)

Dex is startled to see that Deb's hospital room is empty. Quinn says that Deb stopped breathing and had to be taken to the ICU.

Deb's surgeon explains that there were complications — a clot that formed during surgery which caused Deb to have a stroke, depriving her brain of oxygen.

"She won't be able to think, reason, or even know that you're there," the doctor tells a devastated Dex.

Another flashback: Deb reassures a nervous Dex as he looks at his new son. "I know you're gonna be a great father," she says, "because you've always been a great big brother."

"You were so wrong, Deb," Dex says via voiceover, back in the present day.

Via narration, Dex says that he's confident that Quinn and Batista will build a case against Saxon. "I could leave now for Argentina and let the state of Florida kill him," he muses. (And just like that, we know that that is exactly what he won't do.)

Back on the bus, Hannah offers Elway tea, but he sees through her poisonous scheme. Good thing she has a back-up plan: She injects him with horse tranquilizer. He passes out, and Hannah and Harrison make their escape.

Dex confronts Saxon in a holding cell. "In one sharp moment," he says, "you took away this foolish dream that I could have a happy life."

Saxon asks why Dex is there. "I'm here to kill you with that pen," Dex announces, referring to a ballpoint on the table between them.

Saxon grabs it and punctures Dexter in the shoulder, but Dexter yanks the pen out and and stabs Saxon in the neck, nailing the carotid artery. Saxon bleeds out on the floor.

Dex goes home and unmoors his boat, Slice of Life. "As much as I may have pretended otherwise, for so long I've wanted to be like other, to feel what they felt," he narrates. "But now that I do, I just want it to stop."

"I destroy everyone I love," he intones. "I can't let that happen to Hannah, to Harrison. I have to protect them from me."

He drives Slice of Life straight into the heart of the storm.

Later, as the sun shines brightly on Miami, a Coast Guard boat comes across the wreckage of Dexter's boat. At Miami Metro, Batista hears the bad news.

In Buenos Aires, Hannah reads an article about Dexter's death on her tablet. She loses her composure for a moment — appearing to be both anguished and furious — then pulls herself together for Harrison, suggesting that they go have ice cream.